1. The 2018 round of the world’s largest “K-Pop World Festival” will take place at the Sports Complex in Changwon at 19:00 on October 5, co-hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Korea Broadcasting System (KBS) and the Korean Culture and Information Service with the support of Changwon city and Kyongnam Bank.

° The “K-Pop World Festival,” the 2018 round of which will mark the eighth, is a global Hallyu (Korean Wave) festival participated by Korean pop song-loving foreigners. In the 2018 round, a total of 175 teams won the preliminary competitions held at 90 diplomatic missions and cultural centers of the Republic of Korea in 75 countries.

° Out of the 175 preliminary winning teams, 12 teams -- one each from the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, the Kingdom of Thailand, the Republic of South Africa, the People's Republic of Bangladesh, the United States, the Republic of Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Canada, the Republic of Cuba, the Republic of Bulgaria, the French Republic, and the Republic of Poland -- advanced to the final round after evaluations by relevant experts.

※ The final round and a documentary on the finalists will be broadcast on KBS 2TV on October 20 and 21, 2018.

2. The final competition will feature famous Korean entertainers as hosts and performances by a number of K-pop stars as guest singers.

3. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been conducting soft power-based public diplomacy in a bid for the Hallyu fans across the world to take a keener interest in and to better understand diverse aspects of Korean culture. The Ministry will double such efforts in cooperation with major media outlets.

* unofficial translation